Never Lacking Excitement!

After I finished running my errands today and had a late lunch, A came down to the house so that I could show her where to find Woody K.'s food and the plants that need to be watered and what to do with the mail. She brought a friend with her, well two friends actually. A and her friend C had a little cat with them that looked something like Woody. He was of similar coloring only this cat was a much softer orange where Woody's color is brighter. He looked to be about six months old or so. Just a neighborhood cat that follows them around.

When we were finished discussing business and how much she thought the job was worth (I think I surprised her on a higher note than she was thinking), the girls left via the front door but were back before I could get it shut behind them. It seems that Woody had chased the cat that they brought with them and he ran up a big 'ol pine tree next to my house. Unfortunately, the lowest limb on the tree is much higher than my ladder.

For the next half hour or so, one of my neighbors, the two girls and two little boys who just wanted to join in on the fun, tried our best to get the cat down. I got out my ladder and we tried to coax the cat to the lower end of the branch which in part hangs over the roof of my garage. My neighbor insisted on climbing the ladder but she never went up high enough so the cat could trust that he could get to her by coming a little farther. We finally gave up, as none of the other neighbors were home or they didn't have a ladder any larger than mine. She went home, the girls went home and I went inside. The young boys decided to stand watch.

About 5 minutes later, they were ringing my front door bell (actually, they must have been pressing it continuously as it never quit dinging), hollering excitedly that the cat was going to fall and die. I went back out and he had gotten way down low on a very small limb and looked near enough that I thought I might be able to coax him on over to the garage roof.

I opened the garage door again and pulled out the ladder and climbed as high as this scared of heights 60ish lady could go (one rung down from the very top actually) and grabbed hold of the branches and started trying to get him to come towards me and on to the roof. Nearly five minutes of this and I was ready to give up again and started down the ladder. Just as I was folding it back up, the boys hollered and when I looked up the cat was hanging by a thread as close to where I might be able to reach him as he had been throughout the ordeal.

So I put the ladder back up, climbed up one more time and started shaking the branch. The poor cat was scared to death and focused on me completely. I felt so sorry for him but still couldn't quite nab him. I inched out a little further than my comfort zone, while on a ladder with two small boys running around underneath, and pulled with all I had in me and the cat finally made the leap onto the roof. I had my reading glasses perched on the top of my head as usual and they were falling onto my face so off they came while I tried to grab the cat and bring him down. It took several tries and I think he left a couple of his claws on the edge of the roof as he really, really didn't want to let go. I finally wrangled both hands around him and yanked him off of the roof and down the ladder. The boys were ecstatic and I noticed that there was now three of them as the younger brother of one of them had joined the crowd.

We spent a couple of moments loving and hugging on the sweet little guy before I put everything away and came back into the house where I promptly sat down at the computer to blog about this event.

That's when I realized my reading glasses were still on the roof!

Wordless Wednesday Will Have to Wait and Stuff

I wanted to post Wordless Wednesday yesterday but never got the chance. If I can squeeze it in to my schedule, I will try to make it happen today, even if it is late.

I actually got the camera out yesterday to take some pictures of three squirrels eating the bird feed I had scattered on the ground for my feathered friends. As luck would have it, as soon as the camera was out and I was setting up my first shot, a loud noise frightened away two of the furry little creatures. I did manage to take a few shots of the lone fellow rooting seed off the ground but they're really not all that interesting. I tried to get video of him scurrying up and down the tree trunk towards the corn holder I hung specifically for the squirrels, which they ignore in preference to the easy pickings on the ground, but every time I would start the video, he would just hang there on the side of the tree. Of course as soon as I stopped the video capture, he would take off again. Film of him clinging to the side of the tree didn't seem too interesting either so I gave up on that set completely.

I spent most of yesterday morning working in the yard, trying to get some needed work done before it got too hot. We actually had a brief respite, about 12 hours (overnight basically), from the heat advisory and it wasn't too bad mowing (only about half the yard as the other half is totally fried now) and clearing away debris. By the time I was finished, the heat advisory was back in place and evidenced by my appearance. I spent the rest of the morning in the shower!

I decided to do some computer maintenance in the afternoon. Windows kept sending through updates and something was causing a problem forcing me to restart the monster every now and then and it took a while to get all of that taken care of. It is running much better, at least for now.

This afternoon, I have to get my hair trimmed. I've been trying to decide whether to go back to highlighting it or leave it natural. The gray has really overtaken most of the blond and yes I was a natural blond all of my life until I added highlights later in life. I just don't know if I want to start that process all over again or not. Besides, I kind of like the silvery gray color that is coming in. I've also toyed with the idea of going short again. Decisions, decisions.... what to do. So it looks like the usual trim will happen until I'm ready to make a change.

John will be coming home on Saturday for a few days. I'm trying to decide what food to have on hand for those times when he's around here. Dee is working this weekend so I don't know if he will get to see her and the girls or not. He has enough vacation time that he will be able to get back here several times before the end of the year and of course he will have the holidays so I'm sure they'll manage to connect on one of those trips. The rest of my time today, other than when I sneak some time online, will be spent on laundry, which I dislike doing and cleaning the house, which I also dislike! I love the house being clean and go through spells where I keep up with it most of the time but I'm human and the computer is much more fun than the routine of house care. It shouldn't be this hard with only me, the cat and a dog and it wouldn't be except for the fact that - Marsha, thy name is procrastination!

Well, I'm off to get started on the laundry and to pull the vacuum out (that's the first step, actually using it is a different story). I hope your day is filled with something more fun and interesting than the routine stuff I'm facing today!

Lunch With Friends

Kayla's Kitchen used to be the Southern Ladies Tea Room. The menu was unique and the fare was excellent for the most part with a mix of sophisticated dishes and good 'ol southern cooking. I knew it had been sold at one point to either friends or family members of the original owner but apparently it has sold again, hence the name change... and the change in food.

The menu is now a more common fare, not bad but closer to a hot lunch plate than what the tea room offered. Eating with good friends David and Diane, made it more enjoyable today than it might have been had they not been there. I used to work with Dave who was also a traveling buddy of mine and Margaret's. Dave and I have a common friend in Diane, who also happens to be a neighbor. Diane is recently widowed. Her late husband and my ex-husband both transferred here with GM back in the 70's so I've known her as long as I have lived here. Almost 34 years now. That's hard to believe.

The restaurant is located in the old part of downtown West Monroe, near the river, just a block removed from Antique Alley. It's high dollar real estate down there for buildings in many cases that are falling apart but the atmosphere is neat. Sort of.

This is a picture of what used to be one of our favorite places to eat when our engineering group worked in this area before the corporate headquarters building was completed. I wonder if anyone will ever try to revive this location again. It looked this bad or worse before that restaurant was put in. My poor old brain has not been able to come up with the name of the restaurant and it is driving me nuts. There are just some things about getting older that I hate and the memory thing is one of them. I'll probably remember when I wake up in the middle of the night to go pee. That's one of the other things I hate about aging!

It's worth noting that I actually managed to get out of the house in time to get my car inspected and have the oil changed before meeting my friends for lunch. I also made a Wally World run after I stuck around the old downtown area to take a few photographs. I was tired and drenched in sweat after I got home from getting in and out of the vehicle. It was one of those days where you just pray not to get stuck at a traffic light because the temperature inside the vehicles rises considerably as you sit and wait. We are nearing the dog days of summer down here and it ain't gonna get no better!

Fiddle de dee!!! Scarlett will think about that tomorrow!

Another Day

The sky outside has been dark and gray most of the day. Right now, it's peaceful and quiet except for the the beeping of my answering machine which recorded a message about two hours ago. I didn't want to take the call. I knew what it was about. It was a simple courtesy call to remind me about the time and location of a training session I am to attend tomorrow morning. I simply haven't bothered to get up and go into the other room to erase the message to stop the damn beep-beep coming from the machine. It's a lazy day here and I have fallen prey to it!

Occasionally, a slight low rumble of thunder rolls through the almost silence and Ginger inevitably leaves whatever comfortable spot she's made to hide under my computer desk. We've had only a small amount of rain but that's still more than what we need. We've been wet for sometime and the ground is still saturated. The slightest rainfall creates standing water as the ground is unable to absorb any more. The sun is expected to break through later today and shine most of tomorrow. A day or two of hot sun will dry the surface up well enough to mow and clear the yards. We've had a brief moment or two today where the sky lightens and we are teased with the hope of better weather but it disappears just as quickly as it comes leaving me with thoughts of napping.

I was treated to a rather pleasant and totally unexpected treasure late yesterday. I received an email from someone I do not know who happened upon my blog by googling something of interest to him. It seems that my blog was only one of very few hits on the subject he was looking up. The email was from a Navy Chaplain who is starting a series of sermons on the Apostle's Creed and that is how he found my blog. Long story short, my pastor has agreed to make a connection with him to discuss how he approached his set of sermons on that very subject which I posted about here in January. The other really neat thing is that the chaplain had just baptized several people on Easter morning in the Jordan River near where my pictures from last weeks Wordless Wednesday were taken. It feels good to make a connection, however tenuous, in this huge world of ours and leaves me wondering once again about coincidence, happenstance and fate. Regardless of what brought the connection about, I wish the chaplain well in his sermon series and express my gratitude for his life of service, through both the military and through ministry.

Now the recliner calls and I am ready to answer... just as soon as I stop that stupid beeping!

Quickly Catching Up

Our dinner ended up doing pretty good last Sunday. From the reports I got by email, we must have sold well at the door as we cleared a fair amount of money from our enchilada dinner at the church for our Mission Team activities. This is our one and only fund raiser so we needed it to be a success. God seems to work things out as I left for my daughter's home in Florida last Sunday morning quite uncertain as to whether or not we would do much more than break even.

I keep praying for His intervention in a couple of personal situations in our family and sometimes it seems as though my prayers are not heard. Like most people, I have to work through the trust issues and have faith that all is as it should be and that things will work out in time... just maybe not according to the time frame I want.

It's been busy here. I'm enjoying my granddaughters, Anna and Kayla immensely. Daughter Jamie got off on a well deserved weekend break due to the generosity of her employers. They took their entire office staff on a four day cruise as their Christmas / Year End Bonus. I worry a little about Anna's care, as she has extensive needs, but thankfully they approved 24 hour nursing coverage for her while I am here so I shouldn't have to do anything out of the norm. Anna has great nursing care and boy does that help a grandmother worry less than she might otherwise do. Kayla is always feisty and sassy and enjoying her life as a kindergartner. She is a fantastic reader and loves school. I had the unfortunate responsibility of taking her to a well visit at her doctor's office where she got two vaccinations and was sent for blood work which we did this morning before dropping her off at her day care where she catches the bus for school. I was surprised to know that they do routine blood tests on healthy children now as a diagnostic tool. It was not fun but she did as well as any 6 year old could do.

I'm missing Ginger and Mr. Nibs but I know they are being well cared for by my son but I should be heading home a week from tomorrow unless circumstances here change. I'm looking forward (okay, maybe with just a bit of apprehension) to riding with Erin now that she has her learner's permit. My laptop finally crashed on me (I knew the hard drive had some problems) and I am limited to what's available on Jamie's computer and miss all my links and contact lists and software that travels with me. I am a creature of habit and dislike having to make do but not ready to go out and pop for something new just yet.

Maybe I didn't do this catching up so quickly after all!

WOW! It's February already!

Wednesday Night

John's asleep in the recliner after bringing dinner to me tonight and watching the last two episodes of Big Brother on DVR. I was disappointed that Sunday's show was shorted by about 30 minutes, due to the football games running over. Seems to me that there should be a better way to program the recorder than by schedule time which is likely to mess up a lot during football season. Oh well, nothing major missed. I never watched this program until he started recording it anyway.

Ginger just came back in after a quick necessary trip outside but Mr. Nibs is still wandering around in the darkness of our back yard. He'll come inside in a bit and make himself cozy for the night. I need to get a picture of him sleeping in the sink in the half bath. That's one of his favorite places to sleep. It's cool and it's also near Ginger's food and water bowls and when he sleeps there she is forced to stand guard all night to 'protect' her very existence... we all know she would die if he dared to take one morsel or a sip of water from her bowl. I've really worked hard with her to be less possessive, even taking food from her bowl and giving to Mr. Nibs while she watched. It was just her for so long that she never had to get used to another animal and although I don't believe she would ever hurt him, she needs to lighten up a bit on the possessiveness.

I need to get a picture of Ginger when she is loving on him too. She is terribly jealous of him and sometimes when she acts up when he is getting his 5 minutes of attention each day, I make her kiss him... it's really funny. Sometimes she wails when I make her do it. I swear she's part human. Most of the time they play really good together, he teases her then she chases him around the house. They do this a couple of times each day.

I'm anxious for Friday night to come. My oldest granddaughter will be in town for a football game between her high school (I can't believe I have a granddaughter old enough to be in high school) and her mother's (and her aunt's and uncle's) alma mater. Her band will be playing and I am going to go to the game. I'll probably leave after they play as I'm sure she'll be hanging with her friends and I am not much of a high school football fan these days. I just hope to see her for a short time while I am there. If I can spend time with her I will certainly stay longer.

My new study (Companions In Christ) started in earnest last night and I think I am going to enjoy it. There's less reading of scripture in this class than in the Disciple series I've attended the past few years but more personal application of the scripture we do read. We will do a lot of journaling and discussion of our spiritual lives and growth. This study definitely appeals to my introspective nature.

I'm also doing a pure bible study on Sunday nights, led by our pastor, covering the 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. No home reading, we read and discuss during the session. Weldon is such a good teacher and leader and he is very generous with his time in doing these studies throughout the year. Come to think of it, all of our pastoral staff is good about that, as well as our lay leadership.

By the way, dinner tonight came from Danken Trail, which specializes in western style cooking, barbque, smoked meats, beans that type of thing. They have the best beef brisket poboys in north Louisiana. Served with gravy and the best french fries ever! mmmm... I was good though, I only ate half! Thanks John!

Guess I better get Mr. Nibs in and John out cause I'm ready to end this rambling post and do some reading.

Night all!